da . regni sui . s . Gwynedotorum Powyssorum atque Dextralium sapientium et in uno loco ante suum tribunal congregatorum uno consensu et diligenti quia ex omni natione medio circiter[1] temperateque constituit. Acciuit de quolibet pago per suum regnum sex uiros auctoritate et scientia et omnes episcopos archiepiscopos abbates et sacerdotes totius Wallie pollentes ad locum qui dicitur Ty Gweyn ar Taf et ibi demorati sunt XL diebus et XL noctibus in pane et aqua et tune temperauerunt reditionem forefacti .i. cosp superflua diminuere que erant in pluribus reditionibus forefacti ita fecerunt pretium uniuscuiusque rei et iuditium congruum de qualibet re. Tunc surrexerunt omnes archiepiscopi episcopi abbates et sacerdotes induerunt uestes suas et insteterunt bacculis cum crucibus et candelis et ex communi consilio excommunicauerunt transgredientes leges istas et similiter obseruantes benedixerunt. Hec iudicia scripta sunt.
Here begins the preface to the book of the laws of Howel Dda.
King Howel, who was surnamed Good, that is, da, put together the laws of Britannia moderately and temperately with the unanimous consent and after the careful consideration of the wise men of his kingdom, namely, the men of Gwynedd, Powys, and Deheubarth, who had assembled together in one place before his tribunal. He summoned from every pagus throughout his kingdom six men who excelled in authority and knowledge, and all the bishops, archbishops, abbots, and priests of the whole of Wales to the place which is called Ty Gweyn ar Taf, and there they lived forty days and forty nights on bread and water ; and then they regulated the indemnity for wrong-doing, that is, cosp, and diminished the excesses which prevailed in many of the indemnities for wrong-doing by determining the worth of every par-
- ↑ Ex omni natione certainly stands for examinatione and goes with diligenti as in the prefaces of the other Latin texts ; likewise for medio circiter read mediocriter.
